An A4 card, using a Photopics decoupage sheet

Larger cards are very on trend, here's an A4 card that I made, using a Photopics decoupage sheet. The Photopics sheets are specifically designed with larger cards in mind.

I made the card itself using two sheets of lemon A4 card. I scored along and folded each piece of card about 1cm from the edge to create a spine, decorated the spine on the front of the card with ribbon, then stuck the two pieces of card together along the spine with strong double sided tape. I found that the easiest way to get the two pieces of card correctly positioned was to hold them parallel and upright (landscape) on a flat surface with the edges to be adhered at the top. It's easy then to manoeuvre the sheets together to exactly the right position - in fact a lot easier than it sounds from the description :-)

The decoupage design was matted onto toning paper then mirror card (highly reflective, as you can see!), I also edged the design with straight border peel offs. A birthday greetings banner and a couple of gem stickers completed the card.

When making up the decoupage, I found that there is unfortunately a design flaw with this particular sheet - there are too many elements for the second layer of the design and some of the pieces on the same layer overlap. The sheet can still be made up but some of the pieces needed trimming, and I found it better to omit some altogether.

As a result, this sheet and another Photopics sheet with a similar problem (I checked all the other Photopics designs in stock, and these are the only two affected) have been re-homed to the newly created 'Adored - but slightly flawed!' section of Clearance at Foil Play. The publishers have promised me updated sheets without the design flaws, but I'm not sure when these will arrive (as I'm still waiting also for outstanding items from an order placed in March, it may be some time!).

Chinese Papercuts

I've just listed these beautifully delicate, vibrant and detailed handmade Chinese papercuts. There are several packs to choose from:

• butterflies;
• chinese scenes;
  
• deer;
• insects and flowers;
• lanterns;
• tigers; and
  
• vases.
  

The papercuts are coloured on both sides, ideal for card making. Try them laminated to use in aperture cards for stunning effects. Alternatively, stick onto a card blank by using a dry glue stick onto the card blank, then lay the papercut over the glued area and press down, finishing off any loose bits with some glue on a cocktail stick. These sheets are very intricate and delicate - they need to be handled carefully and used only with dry glue, as wet glue would damage them.

I've also done some housekeeping and tidied up the oriental decoupage section of the website today, to make all of the oriental sheets at Foil Play easier to find.

Flower Fairies by Cicely Mary Barker - Die cut decoupage and Match-Its

New in at Foil Play this weekend: Flower Fairies die cut decoupage sheets and Match-Its, featuring the beautiful and very well known Flower Fairies images created by Cicely Mary Barker.

There are four different die cut decoupage sheets, each containing three separate step by step decoupage projects. As the sheets are die cut, no scissors are needed, just pop out the individual design elements and layer them up with foam pads or silicone adhesive to create beautiful toppers for your card and craft projects.
Match-It sheets are something new and different! Each decoupage sheet is designed for use with matching embossed transparent peel off stickers (available in a choice of gold or silver). Place the matching peel off sticker over the printed design on the sheet to create a gilded and laminated effect, decoupage around the edge of the peel off and apply to your craft project.

The Match-It peel offs and decoupage sheets are available individually at Foil Play, so that you can select the colour peel offs of your choice to match with each decoupage sheet, you may also wish to use the peel offs on their own, without the matching decoupage sheets.

Cicely Mary Barker was born in Croydon on 28 June 1895. She suffered from epilepsy as a child and remained physically delicate for most of her life. She was unable to go to school, so she was educated at home and spent much of her time on her own, reading and drawing.

Cicely was influenced by the huge popular interest in fairies which developed from the Victorian enthusiasm for fairy stories and epitomised by the immense popularity of J M Barrie's Peter Pan in the early part of the 20th century. Published in 1923, Flower Fairies of the Spring was well received by a post-industrial, war-weary public who were charmed by her vision of hope and innocence, which seemed to evoke a less aggressively modern world. Queen Mary did much to encourage the vogue for fairy paintings during the 1920s by frequently sending postcards depicting fairies to her friends.

Cicely Mary Barker always used real-life models for her paintings. She always asked the child model to hold the flower, twig or blossom of a particular fairy, for she wanted to be sure of the accuracy of her depiction of the shape, texture and form of the plant. Her only alteration was to the size, she enlarged the flower to make it the same size as the child.

Cicely continued to paint until her eyesight began to fail her towards to end of her life. She died on February 16, 1973 at the age of 77 years old.

New peel off sticker sheets

I've just added some great new peel off sticker designs, including:

• Egyptian;
• Paisley;
• Oriental dragons, ladies, vases and borders and corners;
• European travel;
• Baby words, suitable for cards or scrapbook pages; and
  
• Wedding cakes & celebrations
  

Peel off sticker sheets are a very inexpensive yet versatile addition to your crafting stash, for hints and tips on getting the best out of them, check out this previous blog post.

Caron Vinson die cut goth fairy decoupage

Caron Vinson die cut fantasy fairy decoupage sheets are now in store at Foil Play.

There are eight different sheets featuring these lovely goth fairies. Each sheet is die cut, so no scissors are needed. All you need to do is pop out the numbered project pieces and layer them up with double sided adhesive foam pads or silicone adhesive to create beautiful toppers for your card and craft projects.
I have also stocked up on other Reddy die cut decoupage sheets, including Toreads, Faerie Poppets, Dream Tide Fairies, Angel Whispers and Morehead.

TV launch of new FGS Stack-Its and Triptych decoupage sheets

Tina Fallon of FGS Creative Designs has emailed to let me know that the Create and Craft / Ideal World TV launch of the new Stack-Its and Triptych designs has been rescheduled from 13 May as originally planned.

The designs will now be featuring in a show at 9.00 am on Sunday 18 May, so check out the show if you'd like to see these great new designs demonstrated on screen.

FGS Creative Designs Triptych 3 panel decoupage sheets

Something else is new in store this weekend at Foil Play from FGS Creative Designs! Triptych sheets are a brand new type of decoupage, designed to help you produce beautiful cards quickly and easily.

Each high quality A4 decoupage sheet contains a three panel image, with co-ordinating backing paper and greeting panels. You cut out the image panels and mount them with foam pads on the background paper to produce an unusual triptych effect.

The designs available so far feature animals, ranging from cute to witty and just plain gorgeous. They are suitable for many occasions, including birthday, congratulations and anniversary.

New FGS Creative Designs Stack-Its sheets

FGS Creative Designs have just released lots of great new Stack-Its sheets, now in store at Foil Play, which will be featuring on the Create and Craft TV channel on Tuesday 13 May at 9.00 am and 11.00 am.

Stack-Its sheets produce toppers with a 3D pyramid effect for your card and craft projects. You cut out all the different sized shapes of the image, then layer them on top of each other with foam pads, starting with the largest at the base and the smallest at the top. Self adhesive foam pads are recommended rather than silicone adhesive for this particular type of decoupage, as they provide more even spacing between layers.

There is a huge variety of new designs to choose from:

• animals - kittens, puppies, wolves, horses, tigers, panda, peacock, hedgehog, dolphins;
• hobbies and sports - darts, bowling, football, snooker, pool, horse racing;
• Native American Indian;
  
• planets;
  
• transport- hot air balloons, cars, cycles, motorbikes, sports cars, trains;
  
• scenery - cottages, river scenes and fabulous sunset scenes; and
  
• vintage designs - tram, cars, houses, people.
  

Most of the sheets contain two separate projects, a few (like the sheet above) could be made into either one large project with many layers, perhaps for use as the centrepiece for a larger card. Alternatively, you could make two projects out of the same sheet by building alternative layers.

Kanban die cut Concept cards, toppers and Egyptian range

Foil Play now offers a gorgeous selection of goodies from Kanban, including Concept cards, die cut toppers, Pyramage sheets and Egyptian themed products.

Concept cards featured as part of a recent TSV on the QVC shopping channel. There is a wide range of cards available, in both foiled and non-foiled finishes, for a variety of occasions.

Each pack makes one finished card, with extra die cut elements to use on other projects. The sheets are die cut, so no scissors are needed - all you need to complete the card is your choice of adhesive.

If you are new to card making, the packs will enable you to make stunning cards quickly and easily. For experienced crafters, the packs can be used with other products, to create cards on a more advanced level.If you'd like to add a little extra sparkle to your cards, why not add a bit of Kanban Bling - mixed colour packs of 3mm or 5mm round self adhesive sparkly gems.

There is a huge selection of die cut foiled toppers to choose from, many of which are particularly suitable for male cards.

The designs available include:

• sports (football, golf, rugby, cricket, cycling, extreme sports, horse racing);
  
• hobbies (music, drinking, playing cards, gardening, rambling, martial arts, snooker, darts); and
  
• transport (motorcycles, ships and cars).
  

The Egyptian range has been launched to co-incide with the return of the Tutankhamun treasures exhibition to the UK, and has also featured on QVC.

There is a choice of die cut toppers featuring Egyptian Icons: Tutankhamun (of course!), Bastet, Queen Nefertiti and Egyptian Goddesses along with a choice of co-ordinating backing papers, card and self adhesive ribbon borders.

I made the card above using the Bastet die cut toppers. One topper is matted and layered on mirri card and toning card. I have decoupaged the cat only from another identical topper, and mounted it on top with self adhesive foam pads.

I embellished the edges of the card with metallic moon confetti, and mounted a gold moon under Bastet's collar with an adhesive foam pad, to add a little extra dimension.

The background of the card features the Egyptian Icons backing paper, whilst the foiled border with gold hieroglyphics is taken from the middle of the Bastet die cut topper sheet.